


Road Trip USA

by Dillian



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Timeline Where Loki Has the Cube, F/M, Family Fluff, Fluff, Fluff and Smut, FrostIron - Freeform, Frosterony?, IronFrost - Freeform, M/M, MCU AU, Multi, Pepperony - Freeform, What Would I Call a Tony/Pepper/Loki Threesome?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-05
Updated: 2020-05-03
Packaged: 2021-03-01 01:00:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 16,287
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23496436
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dillian/pseuds/Dillian
Summary: They say you should write the story you want to read.  That's literally all this is.  Based on my good memories of cross-country vacations with my kids when they were growing up in the early 2000's, and of the Road Trip USA computer game we would play together sometimes.  If I can't go on  a real vacation right now because of shelter-in-place, I can at least enjoy a fictional one until things get better.The timeline for this story is the alternate one where the Avengers manage to give Loki the Tesseract, when they were trying to get hold of it to use on Thanos.  Loki used the Cube to  hide out for awhile, before meeting up and reconciling with Tony and Pepper.  After that little Morgan was born, and now they're all pretty much a family.Lessons will be learned, peoples' pasts will be shared.  Even such a simple, fluffy story as this one should have character development.
Relationships: Loki/Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Loki/Tony Stark, Pepper Potts/Tony Stark
Comments: 41
Kudos: 20





	1. A Grilled Cheese Sandwich in Kingman

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony's POV

**[Fandom: Marvel Cinematic Universe** ****  
**Characters: Tony Stark, Loki, JARVIS, Pepper Potts, Morgan Stark** **  
** **Author’s note: This is a fan-work, meant for enjoyment only, and not for any material profit]**

This story starts in Arizona. It starts after a lot of the events have already happened, because you know, _in medias res_ , etcetera, etcetera, like that. (Look it up, if you don’t know your literary terms.) Basically, what we’re doing is starting after the fun parts are happening. We’ll probably go back and fill you in on the depressing backstory details later.

It starts in Arizona, Kingman to be exact. Right across the California state line, on the I40, and fairly close to the route of Historic Route 66, if you’re into that kind of thing. Tony isn’t really, or he never was up until now. When you’ve got a wiggly five-year old in the back seat, suddenly you’ll start grasping at any straws to entertain them though, and there’s a restaurant-slash-museum right on the main drag of town that looks like it might fit the bill.

“Route 66? What’s that?” There’s also a semi-wiggly ex-supervillain in the back seat. Loki is always making a big deal out of: _Oh, I don’t have to go with you, you paltry mortal scum. I can use the Tesseract any old time I want, and go wherever I want, and it certainly won’t be in this boring car of yours, driving across the desert._ Loki is also still here though. Five hours into the drive, and some of them were pretty boring hours, long empty roads, and practically no cell reception, black mountains on both sides, and they seem like they’re going on forever. He hasn’t left yet. Maybe he’s enjoying the trip. He could be here just so he can be annoying too though. That also would be typical Loki.

“Ah, I asked a question?” the aforementioned ex-supervillain repeats snootily. “What is Route 66?”

“Route 66…” This next voice belongs to JARVIS. Tony, who never had any need at all for an AI in his car when he was single, has discovered since he became a father that it can be very useful indeed, to have a tireless electronic someone around, to entertain his daughter. ...Or Loki. Sometimes it amounts to the same thing. “Route 66, Master Loki,” says the helpful AI, to the wiggly ex-supervillain, “first begun in 1925, and known as the Mother Road…”

“Boring.” Loki. “Liven it up for me, JARVIS. What is it mortals say? Cut to the chase.”

“Do we say that?” Pepper, riding shotgun. She and Tony have been trading off driving, since they left Malibu. During Tony’s times as a passenger, he wiggles along with Morgan and Loki. Maybe it’s no surprise that Pepper’s times in the passenger seat have been getting longer and longer, and after another day or so of her husband wiggling, she might not do any of the driving anymore. She might just sit there and read her mystery novels instead. Which is what she’s been doing ever since Barstow. “Do we say that, Tony?” she asks. “Us mortals?”

“I say it all the time,” Tony says. “I don’t know about you… Do you? Are you in fact, a mortal, Ms. Potts. Because I’ve had my suspicions lately. You might be a Skrull. Are you a Skrull, Ms. Potts?”

Morgan, in the back seat, giggling. “A Skrull! What’s a Skrull, Daddy?”

Loki, to her, in a helpful tone. “The Skrull are very dangerous aliens. Sort of like myself.”

Which of course makes the little girl giggle, and meanwhile JARVIS is still doing his computerish best to answer Loki’s earlier question to him.

“I will, as you say, Master Loki, ‘cut to the chase.’ You remember the movie _Cars_? You watched it with Miss Morgan?”

“Did I?” Loki remembers. He’s got to remember. Tony was there. Loki didn’t stop complaining about the tow-truck character the entire way through. Which was kind of justified. He was a horrible character. “Ah yes,” he acknowledges now to JARVIS. “Shameless sentimentality and commercialism. Painful to watch, as I recall. And is that what your ‘Route 66’ is like? I’m not interested.”

Morgan is. Morgan liked _Cars_. Also she has to pee. She tells them that about a jillion times in between getting off the freeway, and finding a parking spot at the Route 66 Cafe and Museum (the name of course spelled out in 50s retro neon). Morgan expresses hope that she might see Mater inside, also a bathroom. Lucky Morgan will at least get one of her wishes granted at this place.

Inside: Everybody has seen this restaurant before. Probably a lot of times. This is the one with the shiny red vinyl seating, and the little jukeboxes on the table. It’s the one where you give your kid a stack of pennies and they play nonstop Buddy Holly and Little Richard songs, and a lady in a starched white uniform brings you burgers and Cokes. Added attraction to this one is the museum. Tony and Loki take Morgan to look at it, while Pepper waits for the food.

Photographs of olden-days cars. These do not interest Morgan very much, although Loki studies them for awhile. And he reads all the captions. “You mortals are pathetic,” he comments, “valorizing the building of this petty road, for your fume-belching vehicles to navigate…”

This is about as far as he gets, he might not have gotten this far. He has time to get going fairly well on his usual anti-Midgardian rant, which always goes something along the lines of, _Oh, you guys and your stupid little this, and your stupid little that, whereas we on Asgard, where I never go anymore, because my whole family hates me, but never mind that, and never mind that I’m not really an Asgardian, I’m actually a Frost Monster, or whatever they’re called. TLDR, we’re awesome, you guys suck. Repeat that word-for-word about a gazillion times, and only the details change._ This time he gets interrupted, because Morgan finds the case of taxidermied animals.

Taxidermied animals are depressing. They are for an adult at any rate, for a little kid though? Not so much. What does it feel like to be so innocent? Morgan doesn’t see the stiff, dead-looking postures. She totally misses all the moth-holes in the fur and the feathers. What does Morgan see? Animals! To be precise, she sees kitties!

Morgan loves kitties. Morgan is the reason why there are now three cats at the Malibu house. Even though she said bye-bye to Mark I, Mark II and Mark III just this morning, she us up for more kitties! Loki is stopped mid-rant by her squealing, as she runs over and tries to get through the glass, it looks like, trying to get into the case to pet the mountain lion and two mangy bobcats inside. Kitties, kitties, kitties! What does it feel like to be so new in life that your love for kitties shines above everything, including the dust, and the smell of mothballs, and the very obvious deadness of your kitties?

What it feels like being the dad of that much innocence? It feels nice. Feels like you should be able to get back into your own innocence. Not that you can. You do your best not to ruin hers though, “Yes,” you say, “those are kitties. Nice kitties.”

“Nice kitties that would eat you as soon as look at you.” Loki, always with the acid tongue.

Morgan’s used to him though, and she doesn’t turn a hair. “They would eat you Uncle Loki, because you’re a villain. They wouldn’t eat me, because I’m a cute little girl.”

More conversation, more looking through the museum. There’s a menu, very faded, from when the restaurant opened in the 50s, there is another case with some snakes in it. Loki likes those.

Here’s a story Loki told Tony once. Hard to say how much of it’s true, because you know, it’s Loki. Here goes, though: It seems his brother… -- The Thunderer, Loki always calls him, or The Lummox, or the Clot-Head. -- ...Seems Thor also likes snakes. Some kind of a weird Asgard-thing? He likes them, Loki shape-changed into one, one time. His brother picked him up. “Typical,” Loki said. “I could fool him any time I wanted to, he was so gullible.” Thor picked up Loki-Snake, who immediately changed back into Real Loki. “And we wrestled,” he said, “Thor liked to wrestle, and of course I had the advantage.”

A nice window into what things mean for different people, and why just like Morgan loved the moth-holey cougar and bobcats, Loki also likes the equally dilapidated rattlers in the next case. There’s other things in that story too, such as the whole brother-thing, but we won’t go there. Loki hates talking about his brother, and anyway, Thor hasn’t been to Earth in a long time, so what’s the point? 

They look at the snakes. After awhile Pepper calls them back to the table because the food has come. Burgers for everyone, except Loki wanted a grilled cheese sandwich. Why? When a cheeseburger is obviously so much better of an option? “I want to see what they’re like,” he said. “I’ve heard of them, but I’ve never had one.” He has one now. It actually looks pretty decent. Golden and crusty on the outside like steak toast, and when Loki pulls the halves apart, you can see that’s real cheese in there, not some Kraft processed shit-cheese.

He takes a bite. “This is edible,” he says. “For Midgardian food.”

Of course it is. The burgers, also? Very edible. Morgan gobbles hers like she hasn’t seen food in a month, even though she’s been riding in the car all day, so how did she work up the appetite? Probably she’s growing again. She eats the whole thing, begs for a chocolate cone for dessert afterward. Well, why not? Ice cream cones all around, and they walk out into the parking lot carrying them, and look at the Arizona desert all around them.

Springtime. Give it another month, it’ll probably be too hot here, but for now it’s perfect. Pale, pale blue sky like a faded workshirt, and a breeze. Smell on the breeze, like this sweet fragrance. Desert flowers? Do they have desert flowers this time of year? Sand, palest gold color, spiky green plants everywhere, in the planters and along the roadside, because in the desert, even the weeds have spines. Cactus-weeds. Nobody’s interested in touching the cactus-weeds though, so that’s alright. They sit on the shitty tin benches outside the restaurant, and they eat their ice cream, and then they get back into the car.

“Camp Verde tonight,” Pepper announces as they get back onto the I40.

Just three hours away? “It’s barely two now,” Tony says. “I could go further. What about Winslow, or Holbrook?”

“Camp Verde, we have reservations.”

At a Holiday Inn, if Tony remembers. Because this was supposed to be an old-fashioned family vacation like anybody might have, not the super-luxurious kind he’s used to.

“Camp Verde it is, then. Loki, you good with that?”

“I have the Cube, remember? If I don’t like your Verde hotel, I shan’t stay.”


	2. Holding Hands at Wupatki Monument...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And some hijinks in the sauna.  
> (Tony's POV, cont.)

**[Fandom: Marvel Cinematic Universe** ****  
**Characters: Tony Stark, Loki, JARVIS, Pepper Potts, Morgan Stark** **  
** **Author’s note: This is a fan-work, meant for enjoyment only, and not for any material profit** **]**

Flagstaff Arizona: Lots of archeological sites here. Lots of opportunities for hiking, which tires Morgan out, which was sort of the idea. Well, and Pep wanted to see them. Coming back out of the hills, with a warm bundle of tired little girl in your arms though… Following Pepper up and down hillsides where people used to live, ignoring snarky comments about, “900 years ago? Pfft, Asgard was a golden city, and your people were digging holes out of the ground to live in,” from you-know-who, and looking at canyons, cliff dwellings, and various other things until all of them are more than a little tired. Then dinner at a fairly nice steakhouse in Flagstaff. “You hungry for steak?” Tony asks his daughter, and she yawns. “How about a burger?” he asks her.

“Okay, Daddy! I love burgers!” Very cute. She’s nodding all through dinner, and she goes to sleep in the car on the way back to the hotel. Private-time for the adults ahead, this evening.

7:00 at night. Little Morgan is tucked into her bed all cozy and asleep. Hotel room is right around the corner from the pool, and what are the grown ups doing? Sky is dark-dark-dark blue, with a hint of gold on the western horizon; lighted from below, the water in the sauna is a lighter blue, like a turquoise shade. Pepper in a two-piece swimsuit that would be _so easy_ to take off if they could be sure of their privacy here, Loki in something dark and close-fitting, and Tony wearing the trunks JARVIS packed for him. And they get in… The water’s hot, but there’s a cool breeze and that balances it out.

Three adults, one small pool. You know how those saunas are, there’s like a tiled shelf you can sit on, space for your feet under that. Tony’s in the middle, with his left arm around his wife, and his right one around Loki. Two heads resting on his two shoulders, wet red hair floating in front of him on one side, and wet darker hair on the other.

“I could just stay like this forever.” This is Pepper. She hiked hard today. The enduring image of her, like a photograph: Her cute butt, in tight-fitting jeans, with and-blue flannel shirt tucked in. She was going-going-going, and first she was hand-in-hand with their daughter, then after Morgan got tired, Mama was carrying her on her shoulders. Now you can feel how tired she is by the weight of her in Tony’s arms. And if he looked, probably her eyes are half-closed like they get sometimes.

“You are tired out by a mere day’s hiking.” Snark from Loki as usual, right on schedule. “And Stark too, probably as well…”

Have you wondered, by the way, how Tony and Pepper ended up, essentially adopting an ex-supervillain? Because yeah, it seems kind of brain-hurting. It actually came about very naturally, though. You’ll probably remember, Loki got the Tesseract after the Battle of New York. Well, he used it to go to Malibu, and he turned up one day when Tony was very busy, and kind of tired. After that things just sort of went very naturally. You wouldn’t think it would go that way with someone that just threw you out a fucking window, but life doesn’t work like logic all the time. And after that first it was Tony and Loki, together at the house, and by the time Pep had finished processing the paperwork to give Stark Tower to the Avengers, things were feeling quite natural, and they’ve just gotten more so since then. Six years together, as a comfortable threesome. Who’d have thought it, from a guy who couldn’t manage more than one night with anyone ever, before this?

Anyway though. Here they are in the good, hot water, and up above the stars are starting to come out, pin-pricks of light, in the blue-blue desert sky. ‘Loki, you brag too much.” Tony curls a lock of long-dark hair around one of his fingers.

Loki’s hair frizzes when it’s wet. You can never see it, because of his illusion-powers, but it does. It’s nice little rings right now, perfectly for running your finger through. Weirdest damn thing in the world, to feel the rings, but not to see them. As far as anyone could see, Loki’s got the same faintly greasy looking helmet-hair as always.

“I am merely pointing out that my people are superior to yours.”

“Of course you are.” The kiss is just a way of shutting braggy-alien up, but once it starts, it sort of deepens on its own. Tongue finding tongue, and the two of them playing together. This goes on for awhile, and then Pep is awake the rest of the way, and she wants some too. 

Some complicated positioning ensues after that. First Pep’s mouth against Loki’s, while Tony nibbles both their nipples alternately, and then different ones of them are kissing, back and forth and alternately. There are plenty of things that can be sucked and tasted, and still keep the scene PG-13.

Then a little while later, the strings go on Pepper’s bikini top. “That’s our cue to go in,” she says. Here is a funny sight: Her hair has gone as frizzy as Loki’s from the water. She’s laughing eye-crinklingly, holding onto her bikini strings, but not being very successful. And… oops, there’s a nip-slip in progress! How very embarrassing Ms. Potts, to see those red nibbled-looking places, all over your right boob! Ms. Potts, now what have you been up to?!?

Loki like a helper, has a towel spread out for her to hide her shame. More like his usual self, he’s also going for the strings on the other part of her bikini. “Stop,” she giggles, “stop!”

“There’s still a pile of dry towels,” he says. “I can fetch another if needed.”

It’s not needed. Pep manages to protect her modesty just long enough to get back to the hotel room. Literally. Loki gets the strings untied on the bikini bottom right at the same as the door closes them into the room. Now she’s got tight red curls above and below the equator, and it is the most adorable thing in the whole world.

These tourist hotels have suites that are almost as good at the ones at the kind of hotels Tony’s used to… Okay, they’re pretty different, but they serve the same purpose, isn’t that what matters? Maybe they don’t have two rooms with two big beds and turndown service, but Morgan likes the sofa-bed,. She’s sleeping soundly and she doesn’t even stir while the adults are having their fun. 

Two men and one woman, on their big California King bed. Three bodies, still wet from the pool, and a boxful of condoms, and all the lube in the world. Again, there is more of the complicated positioning. One fucks another one, Tony taking Loki from the back, while Pep’s sucking him off like a Frost Giant lollipop (a popsicle?), and then they reposition, Loki fucking Pepper this time, before another repositioning. With some of the toys they brought along for just such an occasion, Pep can fuck the men too, when she wants to. She wants to tonight, by the way. It is very good, when she wants to.

And afterward they’re like three pools of exhaustion, in the middle of the big bed. Afterwards, and Tony is lucky enough to be in the middle again. His favorite place: Double the loving, and harder to get out if he happens to wake up stressed in the middle of the night. This is a good thing, because eventually he usually goes back to sleep.

And Tony’s got his head lolling sleepily on Loki’s shoulder, while Pep is like a warm ball, curled against his left side. “What’s on tap for tomorrow?” he asks her.

“Jerome,” she says. “A ghost-town and artists’ colony.”

“Actual ghosts?” Loki.

Maybe on Asgard there are towns with actual ghosts. This is an excuse for shopping, not that that can’t be fun. “I want cowboy clothes,” Tony plans, “for everybody.”

Pepper says, “it’ll be a late start, because I’ll have to get my hair back to normal. Or, could you help me with some of your illusion-powers, Loki?”

Loki probably will, although he snarks it up rather than promising anything. Pepper shouldn’t bother, though. She looks adorable with curly hair.


	3. A Personal Conversation in Albuquerque

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony's POV, cont.

**[Fandom: Marvel Cinematic Universe** **  
****Characters: Tony Stark, Loki, Pepper Potts, Morgan Stark** ****  
**Author’s note: This is a fan-work, meant for enjoyment only, and not for any material profit.** **]**

Memories like photographs: Pepper: her hair’s perfect again, she’s wearing a little summer dress, a pair of cute sandals. Morgan meanwhile was clomping around in the high-heeled shoes she begged out of Daddy for her birthday (which Mommy was not so pleased about), and as for Loki… You ever watch _Lilo and Stitch_?

Funny thing with Loki, who is so-ooo snooty about mortal this, or Midgardian that, to hear him tell it, he especially doesn’t have time for mortal children’s anything. He always knows it though. Word for word, every detail. You know the fat tourists Lilo takes all the pictures of in the movie? Sunburns, fat bellies, Hawaiian shirts, etcetera? That’s what Loki looked like for most of the day when they were shopping in Jerome. He magicked himself like that, then there were always all these people around everywhere.

“Change back,” Tony would say, “go ahead, fuck with their minds, scar them for life…”

He never did. Some supervillain. And they went around Jerome, and they looked in all the stores, and he was like that the whole day. And it was just this perfect day overall. A little cooler than it would have been in L.A, because it’s in the mountains. Pepper, in that cute dress, with a little sweater over her shoulders, and Morgan, who had given up on the high heels by then (only because Daddy had bought her cowboy boots by then), and Loki, bald and bellied the whole time. “Am I not the typical American tourist?” he’d say, and Morgan was always like, “Yeah, Uncle Loki.”

That was Tuesday. Wednesday there was a day-spa in Sedona, the kids’ area so good that Morgan wanted to stay forever. Thursday was for traveling… If you’re not aware of this fact? There are long stretches of the I40 that aren’t very exciting. They spend Thursday on one of them. Exciting becomes very loosely defined in such circumstances. Here are a few details to show what that’s like:

Number One: The meteor crater. Just a couple hours into their drive, it’s desert, sort of rocky, AKA, it like pretty much everything they’ve been seeing on the whole drive. Beautiful, in its way, but still. They stop because Pepper wants to, and because Morgan has to pee. Bathroom takes them into the visitor’s center, and this will tell you everything you need to know about that place: Even Morgan can’t find anything she wants to buy there. 

After that, here’s another one: The WigWam Motel. If you’ve watched _Cars_ you know what that is. It’s scenic, yeah, but what do you do with motels except stay at them? Minor slightly negative little scene with that one, because Morgan has watched _Cars_ , as was previously established in this story, wasn’t it? She’s watched it, she loved it, even Mater, and she _really_ wants to stay at this hotel, even though it’s barely lunchtime when they go by. First it’s a couple tears welling in her eyes, in the way she knows usually makes Daddy melt. Then when he holds firm (it’s really more Mommy being firm than Daddy), she escalates to a full-on tantrum.

Loki meanwhile is commenting, “You can’t blame her, this drive is extremely boring, don’t you have some kind of a _suit_ Tony, don’t you have a private _plane_ ,” etcetera. He’s not serious, because why not just use the Tesseract if he were, but what he is, is irritating. Very, extremely irritating.

Finally, about four or so, they get into Albuquerque, which was always going to be their next stop. Another of the tourist-hotels that Pep likes. Those things are useful for kids, because there’s always a pool. Stick the kid in a swimsuit, and they can go work off some of their energy, and then you go get dinner. Dinner is Whataburger, easy, fast, and one of the better fast food burgers out there, if you’ve never had one. It’s only six when they eat, you eat earlier when you have kids. Back to the hotel after that, where there’s a fireplace in their suite. Sofa in front of it, all four of them snuggled up together on it, with a Southwestern-print blanket, and milk for Morgan, and some Chardonnay for the grown-ups. 

Morgan’s getting sleepy, you can tell. But this time she’s the one who’s got the coveted middle position. Daddy on one side, and Mommy on the other, with Uncle Loki so close she’s practically touching him as well. She fights sleep hard, trying to stay up and enjoy it for as long as she can. “Tell me a story, Uncle Loki.” Morgan knows whose stories she likes best. And Loki tells her one. As per usual, it involves growing up in Asgard.

All Loki’s stories involve growing up in Asgard. They’re about exploring trackless forests, or fighting bilgesnapes, or escaping from angry trolls or whatever. Give him credit: They’re exciting stories. They’re also very rosy-colored, none of the anger or bitterness you hear when he talks about his brother ever gets into any of them. This one involves horses. Morgan, who loves horses, listens eagerly, her eyes first wide when Loki’s getting started, and gradually drooping a little, as the story goes on and on. First Loki and his brother, and the Warriors Three (another bunch he never has anything good to say about, except in these stories) are having adventures, then they’re feasting… Long detailed description of roast meat, and bread, etcetera, Loki knows how to get Morgan sleepy, as well as how to get her interested. Back to the stables after that, lots of details about feeding the horses, and watering the horses, and currying them, and making their beds etcetera. Descriptions of the exact thickness of straw necessary for various kinds of horses…

“And Thor’s stallion, who was of course Father’s stallion, but did he bother asking for permission when he took him?” (The contempt you can hear in Loki’s voice here, is your clue that Morgan’s asleep now.) “Of course he didn’t, he just arrogantly assumed…” Loki taps her on the shoulder. “Are you awake, child?” 

Then Pepper to Loki, “She’s asleep. Finish the story though, will you? I like horses.”

Loki finishes it. None of them have moved off the sofa at that point, because it’s just really comfortable there. The fire smells like piňon wood, which is a little spicy, a very New Mexico sort of a scent. And the room’s cool enough that the fire feels nice, and the blanket makes it even nicer. Tony’s got Morgan on his lap, like this sleepy little lump. He should get up and put her to bed right now, so the grown-ups can have some time together, but he doesn’t really want to move.

He does want to hear some different stories from Loki, though. Here’s the thing: Loki always keeps a lot back. There are things that he just never wants to talk about. Hurtful things? Probably. Aren’t those the ones people usually want to hold back? Almost definitely they’re hurtful. Loki will tell you about the terrifying things in his past. Not Morgan, for an ex-villain, Loki is very sensitive about scaring her, or hurting her in any way, but he’ll tell Pepper and Tony. They’ve heard about what it felt like falling through space, or between the realms, as he calls it, and they’ve heard about Thanos…

Thanos, by the way? A definite threat. One of the reasons why they haven’t taken the Tesseract away from Loki… Correction: Why they haven’t tried to get it away from him. They maybe could get it from him, at least Hulk might be able to, if they could keep Loki from magicking off somewhere before he could get in a good SMASH. The risk, though… _Six stones,_ Loki has said, _six Infinity Gems. Whoever has all six of them will control the Universe._ Loki holding the Tesseract means Thanos can’t get it, and Loki being here on Earth means the Avengers are protecting him, whether he admits that he wants the protection or not.

TLDR: Thanos is bad news. But Loki has talked about him. Also the Dark Elves, supposedly some of those once almost killed him too, plus also there was one time with a bilgesnape. What he hasn’t talked about though: What he never talks about. His family. Moral of the story: Sadness scares Loki more than pain or danger. Well it’s understandable, isn’t it? Who’s not like that?

Pushing him though, pushing him a little. ...Pushing him, who knows why? Because he’d had a couple glasses of wine at that point, or just maybe to get at that sadness that you can always see underneath the snark. Pushing Loki, asking a leading question, “This isn’t your first time in New Mexico is it?” Offhand tone, not even saying who he’s saying it to, but they all know.

Loki, who also knows Tony already knows the answer to the question. “That was a long time ago, Stark.”

 _Stark_ , you’ll notice, not _Tony_. Why keep pushing anyway? Is it even helpful? Tony’s mouth runs away from him sometimes.

“When your brother was here, when you tried to kill him.”

“If I’d tried to kill the Thunderer, he’d be dead right now.” This is so blatantly untrue it’s not worth commenting on.

“Your dad did a number on you two,” Tony comments.

Immediately Loki is all, “He is not my father, and that arrogant lummox, that clod…”

Summary: Thor isn’t his brother, nobody in all of Asgard is any kind of a relative at all, thank you very much, but is Loki a Frost Giant? No, not that either!

“What is it with Asgard, Loki? Why do they hate your people anyway?”

“ _My_ people?” Appropriate maybe: Loki’s tone is very frosty.

“You know what I mean. Frost Giants aren’t monsters, you know that, right?”

One time… One time, and it was the only time Tony and Loki ever talked about this before: _If you touched me when I was in my true form Stark, you would freeze to death,_ Loki said. Tony was like, _But on your planet it’s natural, that doesn’t make you a monster,_ and Loki just looked at him, How to describe the look on his face? It was like he heard the words for like a second, then he didn't hear them anymore. This is how it is when you talk to him about his past, it’s like he never hears more than a part of it. Someday, maybe they’ll be able to get to him, really get to him. Maybe someday some of the pain will be able to heal.

...Maybe Tony’s talking out of his ass. Who is he anyway, to talk about somebody else keeping their pain inside? “You’re right Loki,” he says, “I’ll stop.”

“You talk too much, Stark.”

Pep’s like, “He’s right Tony, you do,” and they’re both right.

The room’s got two Queen-Sized beds, and if you’ve never tried it before, three adults is one two many for a Queen. Tony for his sins, has to spend the night with Morgan, in the other bed. Morgan wiggles and squirms, and keeps waking him up right before he drops off. Finally he does go to sleep though, and when he wakes up she’s right there, like a rosy, cuddly little ball.

 _I won’t bug you about your past anymore, Loki._ Tony thinks about saying it, but by some miracle he keeps the words in. Even mentioning it right now would be too much, maybe they’ll have a chance to talk about it later.

Instead, he gets up. Sunrise over the Sandia Mountains outside their window, which is a fucking gorgeous view. Drinkable coffee and fresh bacon, in the free continental breakfast downstairs. Tony goes down to take advantage after he showers, while the others are still getting ready. A full day of sightseeing in Albuquerque today, hopefully that will get Morgan good and tired. And he won’t talk to Loki about his past anymore, he just won’t, no matter how much he’s thinking about it. A person should be allowed to have their secrets.


	4. Sightseeing in Albuquerque

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony's POV again

**[Fandom: Marvel Cinematic Universe** ****  
**Characters: Tony Stark, Loki, Pepper Potts, Morgan Stark** **  
** **Author’s note: This is a fan-work, meant for enjoyment only, and not for any material profit.** **]**

Bruce is probably in Albuquerque right now. He’s got his job researching gamma radiation, his office is at the university here, so yeah. Weird thing though, none of them seem to make the effort to connect with him. Pepper doesn’t, and Loki definitely doesn’t, and Tony? Why not, when they’re friends?

You get into these moods on family road trips, and this is not to say that you never want other people around. Sometimes other people can come in handy. Last year they were in New York on Avengers business. You know who’s really good with kids? Hawkeye. Morgan was doing the thing four-year olds do, the really irritating one (one of the really irritating ones). She wanted what she wanted, and she wasn’t going to wait, not for Mommy, not for Daddy, not for anybody. Then Clint took her, he taught her to use the archery simulator and she loved it. Tony and Pepper got in a meeting with Cap and lunch out just the two of them before they had to take her back.

_If you’re reading this, Morgan… Well, if you are reading it, that means you’re old enough to have learned how to read, so hopefully you’ll know by now that Daddy loves you even when you’re being annoying. Daddy always loves you kiddo, he loves you 3,000._

Back to the story. The point here: People can be handy to have around, but there’s this mood you can get into. A mood that seems to go especially with long car trips, it’s like you become this little closed-circle. Like you’re a little community, all to yourself, it’s Tony, Pepper, Morgan, Loki, and people come in and out, but they’re like peripheral people, see? Never going to see the lady that brought your lunch again, or the concierge at this Holiday Inn or that one. These are people, you see them, you chat with them, maybe you write them an autograph or something, but then they go away, see? Then they’re gone, but the community is still there, the little community, that’s basically your family, and for the duration of the trip, that feels like enough.

It’s like you don’t want any more people around, even people you like. No Bruce, no Jane Foster, no Thor either, if he’s here visiting her right now, which he might be, he visits her sometimes. Just Tony, Pepper, Morgan, Loki, and JARVIS when they’re in the car. And the days get this peaceful rhythm to them. Wake up, shower, check the continental breakfast, after that it’s time for sightseeing, or else you’re back on the road again.

Albuquerque is a good town for sightseeing with kids. It’s better than a lot of them. They visit a lot of stores. These are not the kinds of high-end boutiques where Mommy’s having the time of her life, but everybody else is bored. They’re not cookie-cutter tacky either. You know how some places there will be a million stores right next to each other that all sell the same thing? Kids aren’t dumb, they notice these things. Sometimes you’ll see a wall of souvenir shops, you’ll say to yourself, “This’ll keep the kid busy for a few hours.” Usually takes the kid about a store and a half, and they know they’ve seen everything, and they get to whining. Not Albuquerque, though. There’s enough variety here that Morgan’s interested almost until lunchtime. Which is not to say there aren’t some good boutiques too. Mommy finds some of those, she has a blast. She’s a few pounds heavier with turquoise jewelry when they meet up again, and then they go to lunch.

Lunch is green-chile enchiladas all around for the adults. Morgan orders a burger, then immediately spoils her appetite with the free sopapillas, as per usual here in New Mexico. Sopapillas: Like fried bread, and for some reason they’re always served with this little squirt-bottle of honey. Do not put a squeeze bottle of honey down at the same table with a five-year old. You ever watch _Winnie the Pooh_? You know the scene when he’s in Rabbit’s house, where Pooh gets all sticky with the honey? That’s Morgan, wherever they serve sopapillas with the meal, which is everywhere in New Mexico. She’s basically Pooh, when she finishes, it’s not just that she is sticky, she looks sticky. You pull her out of the booth, and you’re a little surprised there aren’t trails of honey following her out of there, and you take her into the bathroom. By then you have to wash yourself as well as her, because you’re both sticky… This, you understand, is before your food has even arrived? A kid can get through a lot of sopapillas in basically zero time, and all the more so if there’s honey involved.

So after that, back to the table. Tony’s food has arrived by then, and it’s getting cold. And Morgan is getting whiny, because, if you please, Pep wants her to eat her burger? Tsk, _mean_ Mommy, thinking little girls have to have nourishing food, instead of living on nothing but sopapillas and honey, Mommy should be _spanked_. Pep and Loki, lucky enough to have stayed at the table, have almost finished their food before Tony gets back. They’re both drinking frozen margaritas the size of lakes. “They come in so many different _colors_ ,” Loki comments pleasurably. Tony would like some margaritas in different colors for himself too, but he doesn’t dare take that much time. Instead, he gulps down his food as fast as possible, just a couple of Mexican beers alongside, to cool the heat from the chiles.

After that though, things start looking up again. After that they go to the Rattlesnake Museum, and if you’ve never… If you are ever in Albuquerque and you haven’t been there? Or even if you have? They knew they were going to go here from the beginning of the trip. Pepper did the research, she made this list of places that they should visit along the way. She said, “Ooh, a snake museum, Loki will like that, Loki likes snakes.”

It’s this odd little place, sandwiched in between a couple of souvenir stores. Outside there’s a tub with a couple of turtles in it, which is the only reason you don’t miss it. Inside though, inside is amazing. If you like snakes, or if you don’t like snakes, personally Tony can take them or leave them alone. 

Here’s another thing about the Rattlesnake Museum: Tony realizes it while they’re taking the tour, and it’s kind of cool. The way they take the tour, it’s Loki and Morgan up in front, and Tony and Pepper are sort of trailing behind. Loki is teaching Morgan about the snakes as they go through. At first Tony and Pepper are getting in some grown-up talk, but after awhile they start listening. 

Like, they go by a case. Full of deadly desert rattlesnakes, all these dangerous sand-colored coils of them, and these mean-looking pit-nostril faces. They go by, all the snakes start rattling their tails at them. Morgan’s like, “Ohh, scary, Uncle Loki!”

“They’re scared of you,” Loki says. “That’s the sound they make when they’re scared.”

And Morgan’s like, “Reeee-eally?” 

And Loki’s like, “Yeah. The rattle is a warning, so you’ll stay away, they’re more scared of you than you are of them, Morgan.”

Here’s what occurs to Tony while he’s listening: You know Thor likes snakes, right? Because you’ve heard the story about Loki and the sneak attack? Thor doesn’t like snakes, though, he likes his brother. As in, they’re like his way of connecting with him, aren’t they? Just like Morgan didn’t like snakes before, but now she will, and it’s also because of Loki. Loki attacking his brother though, that was also a way of connecting, wasn’t it? Because Thor likes to fight. How do two brothers work so hard at connecting with each other, and still fail so miserably? But they’re not the only ones that do that are they?

Afterwards of course, Morgan has to tell them everything that she just learned from her Uncle Loki. And she’s like, “Oh, those are _constrictors_ , Daddy, constrictors do blah-blah-blah. Those are _pit-vipers_ Mommy, see the pits on their head, and the pits do this and that. They leave, Loki coming out wearing a rattlesnake t-shirt that he paid actual money for, instead of stealing one, or just illusioning himself into it. He buys them for the whole family,and he gives them out and makes everyone put them on before they go to dinner.

“Your spirit animal, the snake,” Tony says.

“If I have to have a spirit animal…” Loki is considerably less elegant-looking than usual, in a brown t-shirt with a huge picture of a snake on the front. “They’re deadly and silent, like me.”

“Rattlesnakes are poor little shy babies that will only bite you if you scare them,” Morgan parrots everything her Uncle Loki just told her. 

“Then I’m not like them,” Loki tells her, “because I’m deadly and silent.”

Morgan giggles. She’s figured out her Uncle Loki. He can be dangerous, but he’s got a soft spot a mile wide for people he cares about. People like her, and Tony and Pepper ...and Thor? Not good poking your damn nose into other peoples’ issues. People need to work out their own issues, and if you push them, it’s only going to make things worse.


	5. Taking Risks in Amarillo

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Still Tony's POV

**[Fandom: Marvel Cinematic Universe** ****  
**Characters: Tony Stark, Loki, Pepper Potts, Morgan Stark** **  
** **Author’s note: This is a fan-work, meant for enjoyment only, and not for any material profit]**

The day Loki eats all the steaks is one of the easier ones for getting Morgan to sleep. Standard usual: She gets exercise, she sleeps, that’s how little kids work. She gets exercise, because they stop fairly early that day. Not in Amarillo, after what Loki did with the steaks, Amarillo feels like it might be a little hot for them. Not in Oklahoma City either, which is where Pep wanted to stop. They stop in a town called Shamrock, which is a teeny little spot in the road, and it’s only like three in the afternoon, which is a ridiculous time to stop of course. When it’s a town like Shamrock, where there’s nothing to see, it’s ridiculous. Tempers are a little high though at that point, so they stop. They find a park for Morgan, and she plays for awhile. They grab her a burger for her dinner, and she crashes out at the hotel. Solid evening for the grown-ups after that, or it should have been, would have been, if it weren't for the steak incident.

The steak incident: Amarillo has this restaurant, perhaps you’ve heard of it. “If you can eat our gazillion-pound steak in less than an hour,” they say, “then your food is free.” It isn’t just a steak, it’s like a whole meal. Salad, potatoes, and a shrimp cocktail of all things, as well as this ginormous steak that covers this huge platter.

It is about lunchtime when they get to Amarillo, so they probably would have stopped anyway. This isn't all Loki’s fault. ...Well it mostly is, Loki’s and Tony’s… and Morgan’s? No fair. She’s a little kid. And let’s be real here, a designated Trickster can’t really be held responsible either. This one was on Tony.

And Pepper said so. She said it at the time, and she said it in the car after they’d left. Mostly not with words, she said it with her eyes. Tony tries to ignore it, but a dutiful husband isn’t supposed to ignore it when his wife’s pissed off. And Morgan just wouldn’t stop bringing it up. “Oh, you remember, Daddy,” she’d say, “Loki was disguised like Uncle Thor, Daddy, do you remember, and the steaks, Daddy.”

Knowing Texas’ reputation, they’re pretty lucky that they got out of there without any trouble, aren’t they? Because if anyone deserved trouble… It’s just that Loki can be so blatant. 

One gazillion-pound steak would not have been a problem. And Morgan egging her “Uncle Loki” on? Also no big thing. Even the second one was barely plausible… No it wasn’t.

First there were all these side dishes, mostly cold ones. And Loki was playing for his favorite audience, they bring them all out: Shrimp cocktail, and a side salad, and a big baked potato and a roll. Loki stares at all this, kind of worried look. “I have to eat all that as well as the steak?”

“Yes, Mister.”

Morgan meanwhile, is giggling, not helping the plausibility of this thing at all. And Loki cuts a glance at her. “Can she help me?” That was the first steak. The first one, the waitress was giggling as well. She thought Loki was adorable, for the first one, it was only the second one where she started to freak out. And then when Loki asked for the third one... 

Pepper was in the gift shop at the time. “Naturally, I thought he’d at least try,” she said. Not finishing her sentence, not in words anyway. Her look at Tony said what she didn’t say in words: “I thought a _certain someone_ would make him be plausible.”

One comment. One, that couldn’t be repressed it seemed, but Jesus, what it did to the atmosphere in the car! “You should have stayed then. Logic, don’t you know better than to trust me by now?” 

Morgan knew he wasn’t serious. She just giggled all the more when he said it. Loki sort of smirked, but Pepper just frowned. An old saying: Who knows when Tony heard it for the first time? _When Mommy’s not happy,_ it goes, _then nobody’s happy._

This is why they stop early in Shamrock. Whole point of this trip is for everybody to be happy. It’s to make good memories. If they wanted to be miserable, they could have stayed home. So, it’s like a last-ditch effort, like, if we at least take a break, if we get Morgan to sleep early tonight, maybe the grown-ups can cool things off between them.

The annoying thing about Loki: He _thrives_ when there are squabbles. He seems to thrive. There are feelings under there, but if you see Loki, and you think, “That guy was a villain?” This is when he acts like a villain. When things are bad, he _acts_ like he wants to make them worse.

“It’s not like I blame you.” Pep, grumping at the ex-villain. Loki brought it up, and it was like, why? Nice little setup at the hotel, tables on a patio outside their hotel room, and they’d gotten some barbecue and some beer, and they were having their dinner. After a couple of Modelos, Pepper was starting to relax, but Loki couldn’t let well enough alone.

“I was entertaining your daughter.” (When things are going well, she’s “Morgan,” but when there are problems? “ _Your_ daughter.”)

And, “It’s not like I blame you,” Pepper says.

“Oh, because I’m not capable of behaving responsibly?” Loki sounded more pissed-off than you would have expected. 

Pep just looks at him, and she looks at Tony, and she says nothing. And she continues to say nothing, for a long time, then finally, “ _Three_ steak dinners, in _one_ hour...”

Loki looks at Tony. “It was hilarious, wasn’t it?” (It was, but Tony knows better than to say so.) “Morgan liked it,” Loki says next...

Okay, chaos? Loki-style, everything’s got to be a trick, and winning is best, but being hilarious is a close-second kind of chaos? Fun, yeah, lots of fun. Too much fun, it’s easy to get sucked in, and then when you look up again, you notice that you’ve made your favorite person in the world angry. The woman who completes you, the other half of you, your life. Another saying that makes a lot of sense is, _Don’t go to bed angry_. Sometimes that’s difficult though.

“Why do you put up with me?” This time, Loki was the one sleeping with Morgan, but it was like a toss-up who was going to do it, because they were both in the doghouse. Tony was in bed with Pep, but it was like they were two strangers in bed, they weren’t even touching. And he wanted to make up, “Why do you put up with me Pepper?” he said.

“Tony, just go to sleep,” she said.

“I wanted to say I’m sorry.”

“I know you’re sorry,” Pep said, “you’re always sorry, but you never change.”

This is not true, Tony has changed so much since he’s been with Pepper, and she knows it, he knows she knows it, and when things are cool between them…

“I am sorry,” Tony says again.

Pepper gives a huge sigh. “Oh, Tony.”

Peace comes finally. First she’s mad and she’s on her side of the bed, but then things stabilize at last. Then she’s curled up close to him, his arms are around her shoulders, and his face is buried in her hair. Better maybe, if Loki were in there with them, because three is better than two… No, it’s the peace that matters, more than the cuddling. Loki was already at peace with Tony, or as close to peace as an ex-villainous Trickster can get.


	6. A Rainy Hike in Arkansas

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony's POV, some more

**[Fandom: Marvel Cinematic Universe** ****  
**Characters: Tony Stark, Loki, JARVIS, Pepper Potts, Morgan Stark** **  
** **Author’s note: This is a fan-work, meant for enjoyment only, and not for any material profit]**

In retrospect, they probably could have let Loki take Morgan back to the hotel with the Tesseract. Probably it would not have been a problem, although it felt… Shall we say, Pepper was nervous?

She didn’t think it was a good idea, she sort of had a point. She wasn’t crazy about them using JARVIS’ self-driving mode either, which was a little hurtful, the protocols for that are the best in the industry. Pep was like, “Oh, I don’t know,” and, “I’m not sure,” and, “Tony, do you think we should…”

Of course you can’t tell Loki what to do, and he got fed up with hiking in the rain really quickly. “I did enough of that hunting with Thor,” he was grumbling and, “at least then we had something to show for it.” -- Quick reality check here? Loki’s talked about those hunting trips in the past. Bilgesnapes for the most part, so he said then. Bilgesnapes, are apparently supremely ugly, and supremely dangerous, and also completely inedible. Loki’s complained often enough about how he hated hunting bilgesnapes with his brother, how happy he was that he was never going to have to do it again ever, but now just because it was misting a little at Lake Dardanelle? Nobody’s buying it, Trickster-Boy. -- That was how it was though, Loki just couldn’t stop bitching. He would have gone back to the hotel one way or the other, and he would have probably taken Morgan.

They went back and spent the whole afternoon in the indoor pool, so Morgan told them when they got back to the hotel themselves. A smart way to spend an afternoon, it’s a good pool, and the hotel is just nice enough that they have room service, and you can get it delivered poolside. Tony wouldn’t have minded…

Actually? He’s not sorry he stayed with Pepper.

How it was, was they got to Russellville around dinnertime, after a whole day on the road. Morgan was that annoying combination of starved and wiggly that kids can get into sometimes. You know the one: Where they go on and on about, “Oh, I’m starved, I’m starved, I’m hungry,” but they also won’t sit still long enough to eat. Makes you wish certain people were still villains and they could take care of them.

_Again Morgan, if you’re reading this? Daddy loves you, he will always love you, but you were really annoying that day._

To return to the story: Wiggly Morgan. Wiggly Loki too for that matter, and wiggly Tony. And Pepper had been sitting down too much that day too. She was the one that suggested maybe they didn’t go to a restaurant for dinner. They were going to get a pizza delivered, but they found out about the room service, so they didn’t need to.

Kraft Mac&Cheese at poolside when you’re five: Can anything be better than that? Cheeseburgers and fries washed down with Sam Adams aren’t bad either, and it’s a nice pool. The kids’ end is all indoors, and half of the deep end too. Glass divider beyond that, and then half the pool is outdoors. A see-through glass divider, and the rain was worse that night. There’s a weird cozy feeling to swimming around all comfortable in the warm water, while at the same time you can see the rain pouring down.

Nice. The hiking though, that was the reason they were in Russellville. For those of you that don’t know, there are two fairly efficient ways that you can get to the East Coast. The other one is really a little more efficient. For that one you get off the I40 at Oklahoma City, and you go up through Tulsa to St. Louis, and then the I70 takes you the rest of the way there. Whereas with the I40, you’re going to end up having to drive north from North Carolina to get to New York. But it’s what Pepper wanted because, scenic. Case in point, being all the hiking here. They did Lake Dardanelle on Sunday. On Monday they were going to do the Holla Bend Wildlife Center, which is pretty close.

Spoiler alert: They didn’t. It rained too much. Monday they drove to Nashville, which was kind of a problem, because a lot of the places they wanted to go were closed on Tuesday. So they spent Tuesday at the hotel, mostly just at the indoor pool, because that hotel has one too. It seems to be a thing in this part of the country. Because of the weather? Smart idea, they should have them all over the country. Speaking from experience, when it’s 50 degrees and cloudy, your kid is not going to want to go in the water just because you’re in California.

Let’s save Nashville for another story though. Let’s finish up about Arkansas. First of all, Pepper’s right, it is really pretty. And it’s pretty in a way that the rest of the trip hasn’t been so far, because the rest of the trip has been pretty. Sedona for example: Fucking gorgeous. And ditto-ditto Albuquerque, and even Amarillo was nice in a dry, prairie-ish kind of way. Arkansas is green. It’s like you’ve been in the desert for all those days, now you’re in the forest, and there are all these trees, these vines along the side of the road etcetera. Berry vines probably. “Poison ivy,” Loki said, but they look pretty much the same, don’t they? He was just being negative, anyway, it’s not berry season, so it’s not like you’re going to be getting up close to check.

Yeah, Arkansas is pretty. It’s got mountains with waterfalls, and rustic trails. Nicer probably, if you hike them on a good day, but even when it’s raining, they’re pretty nice. And Pepper had a great time. Her hair was doing that humidity thing again, which always makes her really cute. She looked like Orphan Annie, only in jeans and her flannel shirt, and she took Tony all around Lake Dardanelle, and they stopped and took pictures every few seconds.

Nice pictures. Someday Tony’s going to show those to Morgan, sometime when she’s older. “We went there,” he’s going to say to her. “You know why you’re not in the pictures? Because _you_ went back to the hotel with your Uncle Loki.” A lie. He’s not going to do that to her just because she was a typical five-year old. They’re probably going to have to take another trip there so that she can see it. This time they’ll go at a time of year when it’s not raining though.

And, returning to the story once more: It was just sprinkling when they started their hike. Back at the beginning, Morgan loved it, and even Loki was getting into it sort of. “This is the forest,” he was saying to her, “the scary forest,” and she was giggling, hee-hee, ha-ha, like that. “You know what they have in the forest?” he was telling her. “They have wolves, scary wolves.” Morgan, who knows her Uncle Loki would kill any wolf that came at her was just lapping this stuff up, but she’s little, her feet get tired quickly. And as it got to raining harder, Loki was getting fed up, and he stopped telling her stories.

And one minute it was just her and, “I’m ti~iii~ired,” she was saying, “I want to go to the hote~eeee~el”

At first Loki was okay. Then, like it’s just occurred to him, “I want to go back too,” he says. “Pepper? Tony? I’m taking Morgan to the hotel.”

After that the wrangle about, “Oh, I’ll use the Tesseract, it’s no big deal,” and, “Oh no you won’t, you’re not using an Infinity Gem to transport my daughter, Loki.” After that the helpful suggestion, “You know, JARVIS does have a self-driving capacity,” and the objection, “Tony, I don’t want them going back to the hotel on their own!” Like Loki’s as young as Morgan. (Admittedly, he is an ex-supervillain.)

After that the clamor just continued, and Pepper finally gave up. And Tony was all like, “Well, we could go back early, and make sure they’re okay,” but it ends up being almost dark before they do get back, because Pepper doesn’t like JARVIS driving by himself, remember? They get to the Visitor’s Center in the driving rain, about 5:00. Rather than use his communicator and getting JARVIS, Tony calls for an Uber, to make Pep happy.

And Jesus God, but the cheeseburgers and beer taste good when they’re finally poolside that night! And the pool is perfect, nice and warm after the cold rain. And Morgan goes to sleep nice and early, because of swimming all day with Loki. And tonight all the adults are friends for a change, so there are some nice intimate times when they’re back in the hotel room. No King Sized bed tonight either, but when all you want is fun, a Queen is perfectly acceptable. And Pepper offers to sleep with Morgan, Tony gets up before either of them on Tuesday morning, and there they are covered with blankets, and Pep’s curly red head is snuggled up above Morgan’s red-brown one.

There are some ups and downs to taking a family road trip, but overall it’s a good experience. It is unfortunately almost over, though. There’s just a couple more days left, and then reality is going to hit. Unless they can think of a way to extend it? Either that, or make the real life they’re going back to a little better? Probably the second is the better option. Provided Tony can think of a way to do it.


	7. Plans are Changed in Tennessee

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Loki's POV

**[Fandom: Marvel Cinematic Universe** ****  
**Characters: Tony Stark, Loki, Pepper Potts, Morgan Stark** **  
****Author’s note: This is a fan-work, meant for enjoyment only, and not for any material profit.** **]**

On Wednesday, they visit a shrine to country music, in a town called Nashville. Tony insists upon purchase of a huge and very expensive electrical guitar for Morgan. Why, one may ask? Hear the genius: “Because she likes it,” he says. Pepper intervenes fortunately, and another guitar is chosen instead. One smaller, more suitable for a child and a beginner. As so often happens, she is the voice of reason. Loki has been tempted upon occasion to think that it is her presence which allows Tony to enjoy his extremities of impracticality. Though she has told him upon occasion that this is not so, “He’s been impractical ever since I met him.” Still, one has to wonder. 

On Thursday, they spend the day shopping. More exceedingly impractical items are purchased, including a large ham of all things. Again, why? “ _Country_ ham,” Tony keeps pointing out, as if this is a reason, “it’s _country_ ham, Loki.” The _country_ ham carries a certain aroma with it, not a bad aroma in and of itself, but it rapidly becomes very apparent in their closed car, and Tony agrees to jettison the object. A post office is found, and the ham is mailed to Avengers Tower. “They’ll find a use for it,” he says. “I’ll bet Thor could eat the whole thing.”

“Thor could give it to Volstagg.” Loki has told his mortal companions enough about the Thunderer’s cretinous companions in the past, for them to enjoy the joke. 

Morgan pipes up, “Would he eat the whole thing in one day, Uncle Loki?”

“In a day? Pfft, in less than a day,” he tells her, “he would eat it in one meal.”

“It would be just an appetizer for him.” Tony, from behind the wheel, joins in the conversation. “This is Volstagg we’re talking about, it would be a snack.”

They are at this time, driving north into the region known as Kentucky. This is a divergence from their originally planned journey. From the town of Nashville, they were to have gone eastward to the region of North Carolina, and from there, northward through Virginia, and Pennsylvania, finally arriving at Avengers Tower, in New York. It was Tony who suggested the change. “Because it’s pretty country,” he said, “and there are so many things to see.”

Pepper for her part, acquiesced rapidly. Here is a thing one might find interesting, upon observing Tony and his wife: Though Pepper is reputed as being practical, this must be measured in relative, rather than in absolute terms. She is more practical than Tony. And on this journey, she has become less practical. “It’s a vacation,” she will say, “vacations are for fun.”

Tuesday night, in their hotel in the city of Nashville: Most of Tuesday was spent at poolside at their hotel. The air was damp, scented with the chemicals mortals use for cleaning swimming pool water. A large sign on one wall proclaimed, “No food, no drinks, no alcohol,” but with no one enforcing this edict, they were blatantly ignoring it. The remains of Morgan’s Happy Meal luncheon sat forgotten on the table, alongside a six-pack of bottled beer. Morgan was in the water, paddling around, buoyed by an inflatable ring shaped like a guitar, that Tony purchased in Nashville. Tony, for his part, had a map screen open on his portable computer, and was showing Pepper and Loki various attractions that he said it was imperative they see.

“An Appalachian museum,” he said, “that’s American history, it’s educational. And look, here’s a Shaker village… Pepper, Shakers!”

This was, Loki thought at first, meant for a joke. Every mortal table always carries two jars, one holding salt, the other pepper. These are known as “shakers.” Further conversation however, disclosed the existence of another type of “Shaker.”

“ _Shakers_ , Tony?” Pepper’s voice was amused, but skeptical.

“They’re some kind of religious thing,” Tony said, “I don’t know exactly. But look…” He angled the screen for better visibility, showing photographs of the village which were indeed truly lovely. “It’s historic, and you sleep there. All handmade furniture Pepper, and food like they ate in the 1800s.”

Pepper acknowledged the village as a possible destination, noting its spacious green fields, the lush areas where Morgan could undoubtedly play. She expressed proper skepticism regarding Tony’s other suggestion however, museums not having held much attraction for Morgan so far on the trip. And, “Why are you suddenly so interested in seeing all these things, Tony?” she asked.

He shrugged. “I don’t know. Because they’re there?”

Why indeed? Loki suspects he knows the answer. There is something final about reaching one’s destination. How long as he himself now spent, idling with this mortal family, when he could have already been King of Asgard? Each new day stretches out ahead of one, bringing with it, its small amusements. When a god is so easily seduced by trivial pleasures, is it so surprising that a mortal can as well be?

“First the Appalachian Museum,” Tony said, counting on his fingers, “then the Shaker Village, and there’s something called Conner Prairie in Indiana. It would just be a couple of hours out of the way.”

“If we’re not careful,” Pepper said, “you’re going to have us visiting every little spot in the road in the entire country.”

And, “Would that be so terrible?” Tony responded.

This was Tuesday, this conversation in which Tony showed, in his own way, more of his heart than he normally allows to be visible. It seems that it was his way of saying that he is happy, spending time with his family, and he would like to prolong the happiness. Eventually of course, it will end. They will arrive at Avengers Tower. Tony will return to his duties as head of his little team of so-called “heroes.” Once again he will be planning exercise regimes for Steve Rogers, and giving orders to Clint Barton and the Hulk. Once again he will be complaining as before, about the frustrations of remaining in a command position, and never himself taking the field.

Is Loki so regretful that they are not rushing to New York? There will be awkwardness for him there as well. Once more will the Thunderer be asserting his claims of brotherhood. “I heard you were announcing that I was adopted, after only the slightest criticism,” Loki will say, and again he will respond, “Brother, it was a joke.” He will as usual be very sad, when his overtures are rejected. If he can disavow however, should not Loki be equally free to do likewise?

It is awkward, when the two of them see one another. There are too, the needless divisions, when Tony’s friends insist upon taking sides. Easier indeed, to delay their arrival at their destination, spending their days instead, viewing these small mortal entertainments, such as villages, and prairies, and museums.

Wednesday was the day when they viewed the Country Music Hall of Fame. Tony imitated a mortal entertainer called Elvis, and Morgan was delighted, having learned of this Elvis through one of her cartoon movies, the one with the small blue creature who enjoys destroying things. Thursday, they spent shopping, and the ham was purchased. On Friday they arise early and drive northward. “You’ll watch Morgan while we’re in the museum, won’t you?” Pepper asks Loki. “The museum Tony wants to see so desperately?” Though Loki enjoys learning more about mortals through viewing their museums, yet he makes the generous choice.

“I will certainly Pepper,” he says.

Outside the car window, the landscape is lush and green, and damp from rain, as has been the case for some days now. Above though, blue patches suggest a lightening of the weather, and there is golden light, as the sun begins to peek out. They come around a curve in the road, glimpsing a rough wooden fence, beyond a clump of trees. There is a sign visible, “Museum of Appalachia,” and one hears peaceful sounds, the bleating of sheep, the occasional crow of a rooster. This is not the standard mortal museum, an enclosed building full of glass cases and tiny inscriptions. Perhaps Loki’s responsibility will be more easily performed than he was expecting.


	8. Tourist Sites in Tennessee and Kentucky

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony's POV.

**[Fandom: Marvel Cinematic Universe** ****  
**Characters: Pepper Potts, Loki, Tony Stark, Morgan Stark** **  
****Author’s note: This is a fan-work, meant for enjoyment only, and not for any material profit.** **]**

Here was the best part of the past two days: Watching Loki develop a taste for bluegrass music when they were at the Appalachian Museum. Because it’s old-timey sounding, right? Like how he and Thor always sound like Shakespearean characters when they’re together, like the medieval way they dress on Asgard and so on? Who cares why it was. He liked it. It was fun watching him sit there and listen. There are these cabins. They were built in the hills, maybe 100 years ago or so, reconstructed for the museum. Tony and the others were on the porch of one of these cabins with the musicians, Morgan was playing in the yard. The music was good, and Loki listened and he was smiling.

This was after a really good day overall at the Museum. Which is not your standard museum, it isn’t a pretentious building full of exhibits, more like a whole rebuilt mountain village, with more hands-on stuff than you could imagine. They took turns watching Morgan of course, as usual, but pretty much everywhere you turned you could find things that both of you would like, and that made it easy. There was the cabin with the drill for instance: Some old-timey workman had built this thing, with a wooden pole, and a cord suspending it from the ceiling. Logical response to the constraints of living in an era before electricity, and because they’d removed the drill bit, Morgan could mess with it as much as she wanted. Which was kind of a lot, she messed with that thing for like an hour, and even then they had to drag her away. Loki had to drag her away, and Tony. He was bored, and so they moved on.

“Nerding out,” that was the phrase Loki used. “You were nerding out Tony, and it was cute…”

Maybe it was. What was definitely cute? Hearing cold-hearted Loki, the so-called villain, use the word cute. That was adorable. It made you want to laugh. Of course if Tony had laughed, Loki would have been so offended, and even though that would have been hilarious too, well you just can’t, can you? He resisted the temptation. Loki should be grateful. And after that they went by the cabin with the musicians, and that was when Loki fell in love.

Bluegrass by the way? Think nursery rhymes. Or lullabies, think about the songs you’d sing to your little kid, we’re talking one step above Rockabye Baby here. Now think about professional musicians doing those things, talented guys who could have had impressive careers doing any kind of music, but this was what they wanted to do. Not saying it’ll ever be Tony’s favorite, but it’s good when it’s done right.

So yeah. The Appalachian Museum? Definite highlight. If you’re planning a vacation in the Tennessee/Kentucky area you should definitely check it out. Allow a whole day for it, especially if you have kids. The Shaker Village though?

Here was the worst part of the last couple of days: No doubt the Shaker Village is very historical, and authentic, but watching a kid there all day long? A little kid, Morgan say, and trying to keep her amused, you know, entertain her, and there was nothing for her to do, and also rotten connectivity, so you couldn’t get online and amuse yourself while you were watching her, and besides that she was cranky after trying to sleep in a trundle bed the night before…

There was a reason why the rooms were so uncomfortable... We’ll get to it later. Telling this as it happened: Tony and Loki noticed pretty quickly how much Pepper was enjoying the Shaker Village. She wanted to go to all the lectures, and she wanted to go buy all the authentic handcrafted shit at the gift shop, and after they saw this, they sort of agreed to take Morgan for the day and let her have her fun. And they also noticed very quickly that there wasn’t a lot for Morgan to do. They took her over to the gift shop and they bought her all the toys they could find, things like cornhusk dolls and checker sets made out of wood, that no kid in their right mind would play with unless there was literally no other choice. By then they’d also noticed that there wasn’t any internet to speak of. Loki found this History of Shakers book, and he and Tony read parts out of that to each other, which helped. You can only play with a kid for so long, even when they’re your own flesh and blood and you love them.

And, moving on toward the beds, and the really uncomfortable rooms: The Shaker Village isn’t just a reenactment park see, you can also rent a room and spend the night. The rooms are pretty, very handcrafted and authentic looking etcetera. They’re also uncomfortable as fuck, ancient TVs that only get about four channels, and these narrow beds where it’s a struggle to get two people to fit, and really they’re more designed for one. There is a reason for that though, a really simple reason: The Shakers were a religious group who didn’t believe in sex.

“It says here they practiced celibacy…” This was Loki, reading aloud. They’d just been to the gift shop. Morgan was playing tea party with her new set of little dishes and her new, very ugly cornhusk dolls that Tony had bought her. Loki had the book, and he was taking the first turn reading to the others. “The Shakers were a religious group, founded in the 18th century,” he said. “It says here they didn’t believe in procreation.”

“That explains the beds,” Tony commented, which inevitably Morgan heard. (Kids always hear the stuff you don’t want them to hear.)

“Why Daddy?” she says right away, “what’s procreation? Why does it explain the beds?”

This is not a time for getting into the morality of telling a kid about sex. Or when you should tell them, or how, or any of that shit. Pepper always says, “When she starts asking questions Tony, then we’ll answer them,” and you know what? That works just fine. Better than her finding out on her own way too young, which is how Tony did it, and it’s not like Loki has any better suggestions. But the thing is, Morgan wasn’t asking about sex. She was thinking about the beds, because she’d had a terrible night the night before, trying to sleep in the trundle bed that she thought was so cute, and and then she woke up in the middle of the night, and then the next morning Tony and Pepper found out she’d gone down the hall to Loki’s room, and their hair nearly turned white. Terrifying for them,and for Loki, although he hid it pretty well. Terrifying for poor Morgan too, and that was what she was asking about: Did Shakers believe that beds had to be horrible?

A trundle bed by the way? In case you’ve never seen one? Picture the box Lilo sets up for Stitch in the movie. Now picture one handcrafted and really fancy-looking, embroidered pillowcases, authentic-looking quilts and that sort of shit. It slides in and out from under the big bed. Morgan saw it and she had to have a try sleeping in it. She fell asleep alright, looked really cute too. Only of course she woke up in the middle of the night, and it’s a miracle nothing terrible happened to her while she was walking around all by herself.

It did teach her a lesson though. (Besides giving her some fairly comical ideas about what “celibacy” and “procreation” mean.) Saturday night she agreed to sleep in Tony’s and Pepper’s bed. Meant Tony had to go down the hall and sleep with Loki, but how is that a bad thing?

And moving on, they learned other things about Shakers from the book too: Or Tony did. Here’s what he learned (and Loki didn’t): The Shakers were also famous for adopting foundling children. He wasn’t going to read that part out loud because of Loki’s history.

Foundling: A word meaning kids that might not technically be orphans. A lot of times it was kids whose parents had rejected them.

Something you may or may not know about Loki: His parents rejected him. Not the Asgardian ones, but his original Frost Giant parents. You know Thor always swears the reason Loki hates Frost Giants so much is because of how he was raised in Asgard. “It’s because we called them enemies,” he’ll say. Thor talks sometimes about what’s wrong between him and his brother. It bothers him a lot. “How could we say those things?” he’ll ask. “We spoke of them as though they were monsters, I know it’s why Loki hates them so much now.” It isn’t though.

Loki hates the Frost Giants because his Frost Giant parents left him to die. That’s why he killed his own father. Thor always talks like this was the start of Loki’s villainy, but it was after he found out that Laufey was his father. It felt like an eye for an eye to him.

So no talk of foundlings. They talked about the other stuff in the book instead. Overall the Shakers were pretty damn impressive, ahead of their time in terms of women’s rights, and they invented all kinds of cool stuff etcetera. Kind of fun finding out about them, even though the day sort of dragged, and by the end he and Loki were reduced to playing checkers with Morgan, and she cheats like a motherfucker (and so does Loki). 

And as for Pepper ? She had a great time. Totally worth being bored all day to give it to her, she went to all the lectures, and she bought out the gift shop. Their house is going to be crammed with hand-made Shaker furniture when they get home, which will be interesting to say the least, but again? Totally worth it. Anyway, at least she didn’t get one of the narrow beds. And after all that, they all went to dinner, and the next day they were back on the road. Next stop: Columbus Ohio. Supposedly there is a children’s museum that’s worth looking at. Also some restaurants, and who knows what else? They call it the _Great_ Midwest for a reason, don’t they? Time to see how _great_ it is.


	9. Morgan Writes Poetry in Ohio

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pepper's POV: This chapter is in the first person. I guess that's how Pepper thinks, in my head-canon? It's got a different feel than the whole rest of the story so far, but when I tried to edit it into third person POV, I kept making it worse, so I'm just leaving it the way it is.

**[Fandom: Marvel Cinematic Universe** **  
****Characters: Pepper Potts, Morgan Stark, Loki, Tony Stark** **  
****Author’s note: This is a fan-work, meant for enjoyment only, and not for any material profit.]**

Notes for when I get back to Los Angeles:  
1) Children’s Museums. Very effective at engaging children while also teaching them when they are done right.   
2) Observations based on visiting several (a lot of) children’s museums:   
A) A clean exhibit area attracts children. Fresh new materials keep them there and engaged for longer. Many museums cannot afford to provide these things. Perhaps the Stark Foundation can help?   
B) Commercial tie-ins and celebrity cameos also draw a strong positive response from children. Could Stark Inc. help in any way with donations? A model arc reactor perhaps, or… Tony is good in front of a camera.   
C) Children love superheroes and adventures. Is there a way that the Avengers can be included in this project? Not a good time to talk to Tony about this right now, but perhaps when we’ve been in New York and he’s had time to adjust? Or maybe speak to Cap instead? ( _Tony would hate that._ )

COSI stands for the Center of Science and Industry. It’s a children’s museum in Columbus Ohio, a very well-designed, well-funded children’s museum. Morgan enjoyed it. Although they arrived in Columbus on Sunday, they didn’t visit the museum until Monday (because reviews online said it’s important to take a full day to see it). There were all these field trips going on, huge groups of children everywhere between six and twelve, and all of them were enjoying it. (Note to self: Contact COSI when I get back to Los Angeles. How can we help make their facility better?)

COSI is not devoid of entertainment potential for adults either. Tony wandered off almost the minute they got to the museum. ( _Science_ and _Industry_ are of course his two favorite subjects.) Loki went with him, I’m not quite sure why, but after he and Tony watched Morgan at the Shaker Village and let me have the day to myself, it didn’t seem fair to ask a lot of questions. Anyhow, I had it easier than them. From what I hear Morgan took a lot of entertaining at the Shaker Village, but all I had to do was follow behind, while she studied every exhibit at COSI carefully, and played with every interactive display they had.

As noted above, the important thing was that the interactive materials be fresh and new-looking. There were only a few exhibits where they looked like they’d been dirtied by other children, but those were the ones that didn’t hold Morgan’s interest. Recognizable products and celebrities helped as well. Morgan spent almost an hour on an exhibit about the history of breakfast food in America, after she noticed posters of Captain Crunch and the Trix rabbit.

Or… Here’s one that was surprisingly appealing: Morgan is just barely learning to read, and you wouldn’t expect her to enjoy an exhibit on poetry, would you? This one featured videos of various Disney pop stars, and it pulled her in like a magnet.

The idea was that kids were supposed to take a song they liked off the radio, and turn it into a poem. Again, can you _imagine_? A _five-year old_?

Maybe the hosts at the exhibit were some kind of minor pop stars themselves? I’m the last one to admit, I don’t watch Disney with Morgan very often, and I don’t know all their celebrities. Maybe we should go ahead and get her IQ tested now. Tony keeps saying, “Well, she’s smart, I mean, look who her parents are,” but there’s smart and _smart_ , and watching her in that poetry exhibit was pretty surprising.

I read the instructions for her off the poster above the writing table. “Take a popular song you’ve heard,” they said, “maybe on the Disney Channel, or on the radio. Now rewrite it as a poem, using your own words.” “What song do you want to do?” I asked Morgan. “Do you want Mommy to suggest some ideas?”

Right away though she knew exactly what she was wanted to do. “Loki’s favorite song.” (In Morgan’s mind, Loki’s favorite song is apparently “Shake It Off” by Taylor Swift? Loki might be very surprised to hear that.)

I was very surprised to find out that Morgan already knew most of the lyrics by heart. I googled it for her, but she didn’t need it much.

“The players gonna play, play, play,” she said, “that’s him when he does one of his tricks on people, “and the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, that’s the dumb people who think he’s still a villain.”

Another line she’s been thinking of a lot by the way is the one about shake, shake, shake, shake, shaking it off. “That’s what Loki should do,” Morgan said. “‘Cause Uncle Thor isn’t one of the heartbreakers who’s gonna break, break, break, or one of the fakers who’s gonna fake, fake, fake. Uncle Thor really _loves_ Loki.”

Words of wisdom, from a small child.

“Alright then,” I said to her. “You really know this song, don’t you?” (Recognizing your child’s abilities is key to supporting their intellectual development.) “How are you going to make your own poem out of it?” I asked her.

Here’s what she came up with, and it’s pretty good for a five-year old I think. Wouldn’t you say so?

“I used to stay out too late, but I don’t anymore. ‘Cause I love my new family.  
I love Daddy Tony, and I love Mommy Pepper, and I love Morgan…”   
I used to have evil on my brain, and some people say I still do, mmm hmm, mmm hmm, that's what people say.   
I don’t anymore though, and I should stop pretending.   
I should be a friend instead, ‘cause that’s what I really want to do, mmm hmm, mmm hmm, that's what I really want to do.   
And I keep cruising, can't stop tricking, ‘cause I’m a Trickster, I’m always a Trickster, and' it's gonna be alright.   
And when I think my brother hates me I should shake, shake, shake, shake, shake, I should just shake it off.   
And I should probably talk to my Daddy Odin, who doesn’t hate me, and maybe I should join the Avengers after all, I think they understand that I’m good now.”

That was the key part. I was writing it down while Morgan said it, and I got that much of it. After that it got kind of confusing. I think the rest of it went something like this:

“The supervillains gonna break, break, break, break, break,  
And Dr. Doom is gonna fake, fake, fake, fake, fake…” 

Or Moleman? This might be where she said Moleman, maybe it was in the next verse (which was almost exactly the same as this one). And then there were some details from our vacation, I think she said something about keeping on cruising in our JARVIS minivan, but don’t quote me on that. Admittedly, the poem would have been better if I’d written down the whole thing, but in my defence, she was talking really fast, and then she started dancing before I could ask her to repeat any of it. She danced really well too by the way. Our child really is a bright girl for her age. And she’s got impressive emotional intelligence for a child her age. (Better than Tony’s, no offense to my dear husband.)


	10. Tony Reads Morgan's Poem, in Columbus, Ohio

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pepper's POV again, third-person this time. Who knows, maybe I'm getting better at writing Morgan's mommy? (One can hope.)

**[Fandom: Marvel Cinematic Universe** ****  
**Characters: Pepper Potts, Loki, Tony Stark, Morgan Stark** **  
****Author’s note: This is a fan-work, meant for enjoyment only, and not for any material profit.** **]**

The Amish are another American religious group. Nobody’s exactly sure what they believe. Nobody really talks about that much. People get interested because they live like it’s still the 1800s. They’re sort of a tourist attraction in some parts of America. Apparently Ohio is one of those parts, because there’s this huge “Amish style” restaurant outside of Columbus. The day after they visit COSI, Tony and the rest of the family decide that they’re going there.

There’s a sort of a weird feel to the vacation at this point. Nobody’s really sure where they’re going to go, or what they’re going to do. Are they finally going to go to New York and get back to real life? Are they going to go to every random tourist destination they can find in the US one after another, and if so, for how long? How long can they keep doing that? One thing about the tourist destinations though is they can be fun. One thing about traveling with Tony and Loki is they make things fun. If you close your mind off to the real world, they will entertain you. They could probably entertain you for the rest of your life.

So they’re at the Amish restaurant. It’s this big echoey dining room. Big tables, big groups at the tables, you eat family-style here. Pretty girls in bonnets and Little House on the Prairie dresses are constantly running back and forth with huge platters and bowls of food. A lot of the platters and bowls are going to Tony and the family’s table. A lot of the food is going into Loki. A lot of the Little House on the Prairie girls are starting to stare at him, which as per usual, is making Morgan giggle like crazy. She always loves it when Loki teases people this way.

“Now do Thor,” she’s saying, “Loki, do Thor!”

Loki, to his credit, hasn’t “done” Thor so far. It would be nice to think this is because he’s starting to get more considerate about terrifying mortals. Probably it’s just because he hasn’t felt like it yet. He’s just eating. Every now and then he makes random noises like, “Ohhh, I’m so stuffed I couldn’t eat another mouthful. ...Wait, no, I think I want another bowlful of this, or another platter of that.” The Prairie girls are goggling at him, in between fetching the platters. Tony meanwhile, is watching. He’s not laughing as much as Morgan, but he’s definitely laughing a little.

It’s at about this point that Pepper takes him out into the parking lot. “I was getting ready to stop Loki,” he tells her. “This is going to be just like Texas, you should have let me stay.”

Pepper ignores him. She’s probably thinking it’s already just like Texas because it kind of is. She took him out there for a reason of course; she wanted to show him Morgan’s poem.

Tony reads it. He immediately gets the right look on his face, a sort of a stunned, my-kid-is-so-smart kind of a look. Then, appropriately, he looks at Pepper. “Morgan wrote this?” he says.

After this though, things start getting a lot less appropriate. First, “She did,” Pepper says. “There was some more, but I couldn’t keep up to write it all down.”

“Your stenographic skills are rusty,” Tony says, teasing her. “Perhaps I should demote you from CEO…” Was he starting to sound funny then? Hard to tell. With Tony, the jokes are always the last thing to go. After that though, things started to get more obvious, and by the time they were on the road, he’d gone completely silent.

They were driving through Indiana toward Chicago. This was something Tony had sworn was absolutely essential, just as recently as the night before. Because there were soooo many tourist attractions there, and soooo many historical sites, and if Morgan didn’t see all of them, how could she possibly grow up to be a well-rounded individual? And Pepper, who’s starting to get itchy from not having done anything productive in way too long said yes, because when Tony’s having fun, he’s infectious; you want him to keep having fun. He was having fun then. Now he’s not.

They’re driving through Indiana. There’s nothing anywhere except muddy fields and silos, an occasional farmhouse, visible from the road. Tony should be commenting about it. He’s not. Loki is commenting. He’s making terrible puns about how you can see the people of Indiana haven’t forgotten their _roots_ , and saying he’ll always be eternally grateful to Tony, for showing him exactly how many acres of mud Midgard has. Morgan’s commenting too. She’s asking Loki if there really aren’t any muddy fields in Asgard, and Loki’s telling her lies about how the crops there come out of the ground fully grown.

...Maybe they’re lies? Maybe not. Who knows? They’ve never been there. Thor’s said he’d love to take the family toAsgard sometime, because attitudes about Midgardians there are definitely changing, but with there still being such a divide between him and his brother, it feels kind of hard to take him up on the offer. It feels like it would be disloyal to Loki.

To return to the car: Tony is unusually silent all that day. They drive through Indianapolis, and stop for the night a couple hours to the west, in Lafayette. “They have an event there called the Bug Bowl,” that’s what Tony said when he was telling Pepper about Lafayette, and he made her shudder with a lot of talk about cockroach spitting contests, and booths where you could eat crickets. That was in Columbus. He read her those things, and he kept reading them until she felt all crawly, and started hitting him with her pillow to make him stop. Now there’s no talk about the Bug Bowl, or anything else, as they get off the freeway and stop at another motel for the night, just up the road from another Cracker Barrel, which looks just like all the other Cracker Barrels they’ve seen all the way across the US. And they get dinner at another Olive Garden, because Loki has a Bottomless Pasta pass, and whenever he gets bored, he insists on using it. And it’s pretty obvious Loki’s trying to tease Tony out of being so quiet, because of how grumpy he gets when he fails. He fails throughout the whole meal.

“Can you take Morgan to the pool?” Pepper asks Loki after they get back to the motel.

Loki throws a glance over at Tony. “Will you make _him_ act normal?”

Pepper lies and says she will. (It’s impossible to _make_ Tony Stark do anything.) “Of course,” she says, “of course I will,” and she breathes a sigh of relief after Loki and Morgan leave and she hears the door latch behind them. Then she turns to her husband. “Okay. What’s wrong?”

“ _Wrong_?” He’s using that nit-picky tone of his that says he’s going to argue about semantics. “I wouldn’t say anything’s _wrong_.”

When you have kids, you learn to get to the point of things quickly, because you have to, because you can never be sure when they’re going to come in again and interrupt you. “Okay, I don’t care what you call it,” Pepper says. “You’ve been thinking about something all day. Was it the poem?”

Credit where credit is due: Tony is more open than he used to be (not that that’s saying much). He looks at Pepper, and he actually says what’s on his mind for once. “I have to go to New York,” he says.

 _Umm, yeah, right, Tony, it’s your job._ Pepper doesn’t say anything out loud.

“I have to talk to Cap. He was right to take me out of combat.”

A story that still gives Pepper nightmares: This was before she married Tony, it was before they were even really seriously together. It was right after the Battle of New York. Tony gave her the job of arranging the paperwork to give Stark Tower to the Avengers. It is amazingly difficult to give title for a piece of real estate to an amorphous organization that doesn’t even have a consistent membership, Pepper was there three months getting it done, and when she came back to California…

That was right after Loki moved into the house. He was the one that cracked and told her what had happened while she was gone, after she confronted him with the paperwork from the ambulance. “Yes,” he said, “the mortal collapsed…” He was still calling Tony “the mortal” back then. “I suppose I should have sent for his metal suit, but the waitress had already summoned the other conveyance.”

Here is what happened: The bomb Tony took through the wormhole detonated before he could get back out, and he got a dose of radiation. Not a huge dose, because the suit protected him, but some, and then he didn’t do anything about it. Then somehow the Arc Reactor in his chest got dislodged… This happened at the same time that Loki got the Tesseract. After that, Tony being Tony, insisted on going back to his normal work schedule right away, and long story short, Pepper wouldn’t even have a husband if Loki hadn’t been there. Thinking about that now always makes her stomach do unpleasant things. It had kind of a similar effect on the other Avengers, because after Steve found out he straight-up said, “Tony, you’re not going to do any fighting anymore.”

It was the right decision. On some level Tony knows that, Pepper's very sure of it, but up until that night in Lafayette, it was a subject he would just never talk about. And is it funny that he’s talking about it now, because of a poem Morgan wrote about Loki? Tony’s mind doesn’t work like other peoples’ do; if you can get past his guard at all, it’s not wise to nit-pick about how you did it.

Pepper just says, “You’re right, you do have to talk to him.”

“I’ve been blaming him,” Tony says, “but really, he just made the logical decision. I can contribute more in my workshop than I can on the field...”

There is a slight sense in Pepper’s mind when he says this: It feels like he may have lost the point a little bit. It feels like he’s going back to his old role as a weapons designer, and isn’t he a lot more than that? On the other hand, he wants to talk to somebody about what’s on his mind for once… He’s talking to her for once, Tony doesn’t talk like this, even to people who are close to him. Maybe the rest of what needs done will follow.

“You should talk to Cap,” Pepper says. “He’s a good friend, and you’ve been shutting him out.”

And Tony nods. “Yeah, I guess so.”

And after that the moment is over, but it’s already so much more of a moment than you normally ever get from Tony. After that, “How about that poem Morgan wrote?” he says. “She’s a smart little girl, and she was right about Loki…”

Remember the comment earlier, about how your kids always seem to walk in at the wrong moment? Naturally, this is when Morgan and Loki come back from the pool. Naturally, more things happen afterward because of this. But that’s another story. We’ll get to that later.


End file.
